Teddy and Malachi were twins! Their favorite color is both green. (Hmm, that was a strange sentence. Green is both of their favorite colors? Both of their favorite color is green? Green is their favorite color, both of them?)
Our amazing "Cabinet Man" (as the little boys call him lovingly) made us some new cabinets for our garage. They are almost done. A locker for (almost) everyone, and a place for everyone's boots and hats and shoes, too! It's going to be amazing. Now all we have to do is get the children to PUT things in their proper places. Do you think they will do it?
The cabinet man had a bunch of wood scraps which he said the girls could keep, and Junie and Goldie got very excited about building a little Calico Critters house. They have hardly used tools before, but they learned how to use the hammer and nails and the cordless drill and even the saw! There were only about…oh…five minor injuries in the course of the two or three days they spent working on it.
It turned out quite cute. It has a second story deck (with slide) and a garden balcony and a climbing vine. And there is a nice table and bed on the main floor. Very cozy.
Gus, post-haircut, looking baldish. What a cutie!
This does not seem like a good idea.
Nor does this.
This is probably fine, though.
Daisy made some glasses for Rosie. Lucky doll.
And here is Daisy's pretty hairdo I did for the youth Etiquette Dinner. For several weeks beforehand, she'd been so excited to dress up and go to the dinner! I was afraid it wouldn't live up to expectations, but when she got home, she told me happily, "Mommy, tonight was everything I hoped it would be." Sweet girl.
Clementine, biting and/or eating things (you will also be disappointed to hear that she has TWO TEETH, in spite of my very clear admonitions to the contrary😡)
Clementine happily swinging with Goldie
Daisy bought this little ice cream shop set with her babysitting money, and the two little boys love it SO MUCH. Daisy nicely lets them play with it quite often…and I'm sorry to say they also play with it unauthorized sometimes when she's not here. Gus loves to sit by the counter and order "two scoops, a chocolate cone, and sprinkles on top." I think he could play that all day if we let him!
The ice cream is pretend, but their mouths are actually chocolate-y. Hmm.
Goldie, inspired by the ice cream set, made a teeny-tiny ice cream stand of her own (for Junie's birthday, so it actually hasn't been given yet). It has teeny scoops of ice cream to put atop teeny cones. It is too cute for words. Goldie always does have the cutest ideas for birthday presents!
Ziggy, wearing Teddy's too-big astronaut costume without permission
Gus wearing an even more unauthorized astronaut costume (and indeed, I must report that MOST of the things he does these day fall into the "unauthorized" category. He just longs to do everything his older siblings do!)
We made playdough to write in cuneiform on (we are learning about Ancient Civilizations) and then, of course, made many other things with it. Goldie's cherry-topped cookies looked quite delicious.
Teddy made bunnies
Ziggy made…something.
We thought this was the cutest sleeping baby pose ever. Clasped hands!
Gussie sits next to Daisy at the table, and lately he's been scooting off his chair and coming to sit on Daisy's. Then he scoots over—over—over—until she has to stand up or fall off altogether! He also likes to feed her many bites of his food. He opens his mouth demonstratively and pokes at her lips with the spoon until she can't help but open hers too!
We finally got the last of Abe's room cleaned out (he said he had cleared everything out of it before he left, but he had not, and I was putting off doing anything about it forever because I couldn't face dealing with it), mostly because Seb got a fire lit under him during General Conference and started moving his stuff in. So, now Seb has his own room (!) and so does Malachi (!!)—at least until we move Teddy out of the little boys' room upstairs.
Seb went to prom, where, he informs me, way too many pictures were taken, probably because about four different parents were there taking them! I was not among the photographers, but I did get to see the pictures afterwards, and they were nice (except for the ones near the end where all of them had "when-will-this-be-over" looks on their faces). I love the turquoise color of his cute date's dress!
This was a night where there was a pretty sunset and everyone ran up on the hill to see. The pretty part was on the other side of the sky, obviously (though I don't mind a stormy sky either).
Some strange hula-hoop game (accompanied by so much laughing that I could hear it from way inside, and came out to take this perplexed picture through the back door)
Making "The Royal Game of Ur" for school
A tiny hat
Clementine trying her utmost to fall off the exam table at the doctor's office (just a checkup)
Matching skirt/dress/romper (nooo I did not make them; they're from Old Navy)
A picture Ziggy drew for Sam and me of a bunny and a shark. A transparent shark, apparently. Or is it a transparent bunny?
Near the beginning of April, Daisy and I went with my mom and brother to my aunt's funeral, up in Milton where my dad grew up. I haven't been there since I was a little girl! But I remembered the cemetery. It was beautiful…and soooo cold! The wind was icy. Kenneth recited "Two Tramps in Mud Time," just as my Dad would have done if he were there—
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.You know how it is with an April day.When the sun is out and the wind is still,You're one month on in the middle of May.But if you so much as dare to speak,a cloud come over the sunlit arch,And wind comes off a frozen peak,And you're two months back in the middle of March.
And we saw the house my dad grew up in, the old pioneer house Karen and Waldemar built. It has been added onto many times since then!
On the way home, we stopped to see the cherry blossoms at the State Capitol. They were gorgeous! So, maybe Spring did come after all!…
…or did it? 😡
At least the snow was pretty!…
…and it provided some hours of fun…
…and we got some snuggles out of it!
Those garage cabinets! Such a dream! And even if they don’t put their things in them (hmph) at least the things have a place to go when you round them all up! (And if you CAN miraculously get even just wet winter shoes to be deposited there before being dragged across your kitchen floors, that alone will make it worth it.) You know, I HEAR that SOME people’s garages are so full of WHO KNOWS WHAT (mostly thanks to their husbands) that they cannot so much as park a single car in their garage! Much less have tidy spots to bring order to the belongings of their children! So. This is quite something!
ReplyDeleteAnd kids playing in the snow. It seems every year I am QUITE sure I can box all the snow pants and snow boots back up (and pile them in the garage 😖) because they’ve sat taking up space around the laundry room for weeks and weeks with no need … and then it snows. Why this very week my kids have worn no coats at all to school and their winter coats!
I loved seeing the house your dad grew up in. I don’t even know where Milton is! How and where did your parents eventually meet again?
So many happy and joyful little pieces of living happening in your home! And your girls really do just always seem impossibly dear and sweet.
Oh! And I’m curious about the moving of Seb into Abe’s room. Did you just box up all Abe’s things and put them in storage? Abe’s closet STILL is so full of his stuff that it’s unusable! I keep wanting some kids to get married just so I can feel better about removing all their things from their rooms for good!